In 1 Corinthians 8, before we
begin, I've got a question for us to consider. What's more important,
knowledge or love? Now, we know knowledge is obviously
very important. Eternal life is to know the Lord
Jesus Christ, isn't it? Knowledge is important. That's
why we have these Bible classes to teach the scriptures, so that
we'd be taught of God. But you know, a person can know
God and not know much else. They don't know much. Now, their
knowledge will grow, but you can know God and not know much.
But it's impossible to know God and not love. It is. Now, a believer
needs both. We need knowledge and love directed
by each other. We need knowledge directed by
love, and we need love directed by knowledge. But the most important
is love. And we'll see that, I hope, as
we go through our lesson in 1 Corinthians 8 this morning. In this chapter,
Paul's talking about eating meat that's been offered to idols.
Many times that meat was eaten in the idol's temple or it was
sold in the market. Someone bought it and took it
home and ate it. And that's not a problem in our society for
us today. I don't even know anywhere around
that somebody offers meat to idols. But in the Bible Belt,
where we live, drinking alcohol would be frowned upon, or maybe
if someone has a problem with that today, just like someone
in Paul's day had trouble with someone eating meat offered to
idols. And in our lesson, here's what we're to be taught. As a
believer, you're free to eat or drink whatever you want, as
long as it's done in moderation. And as long as it's done in love
for your brethren, considering their If it offends them, don't
do it. And that's the lesson of these
verses that we'll look at this morning. So verse 1, Paul says,
Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all
have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity
edifier. Now we all know that an idol,
all that thing is, is a hunk of wood, or a hunk of stone,
or ceramic, you know, carving or molding of some sort. Nothing that's offered to an
idol can defile your body. Not at all. And every believer
knows that. But some still don't think it's
fitting or it's right to eat meat that's been offered to an
idol. Even though drinking a glass of wine is not going to defile
your body, some still don't think it's fitting for a believer to
do that. We all know what goes into the body doesn't defile.
What defiles us is what comes out of the body, the nature that's
already in us. Look over at Matthew chapter
15. Our Lord taught us this. Matthew
15 verse 11. Not that which goeth into the
mouth defileth the man, but that which cometh out of the mouth,
this defileth the man. What comes out of the mouth reveals
a defiled nature. a wicked heart. Now we all know
that. But some believers still think
it's wrong to eat meat that's been offered to idols. And those
of you who have knowledge of that, that understand that there's
nothing wrong with eating meat that's offered to an idol, or
drinking an alcoholic drink of some sort, you have that knowledge,
but don't get too full of yourself now. Knowledge without Christ,
even knowledge of true things, without Christ, puffs up the
flesh. But knowledge with Christ humbles
us. True knowledge will humble us.
Knowledge that's not directed by love for Christ and love for
our brethren leads to pride and division. But true love will
edify others, will strengthen others, will help others. And
knowledge, I don't care how much knowledge you have, how true
the knowledge that you have is, knowledge without a loving attitude
is worthless. As a matter of fact, it's detrimental
because it leads to pride and division. So verse 2 Paul says,
if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing
yet as he ought to know. Now if someone really thinks
he understands the things of God, he really doesn't know anything
yet like he ought to know it. Because no matter how much we
know about the Lord, no matter how much we know about God's
There's a whole lot more we don't know. And the most knowledgeable
believers, the most knowledgeable believers I've ever met, they
all know this. The Lord's given them some understanding,
but they also know their own ignorance and their own need
to be taught. No matter how much we learn while
we're in this flesh and this life, no matter how much we're
taught, we always need to be taught more. Because our knowledge
is always imperfect. And we need to be taught the
same things. Over and over and over again, because we think,
well, I've learned that. I've got that. How quickly is
it gone? And we've got to relearn it.
You know, the Lord blesses, and we're like the children of Israel.
The Lord blesses and blesses and blesses. And then we get
up in the morning and say, oh, my, what are we going to eat?
What are we going to wear? We forgot. We've got to be taught
over and over again. We might know it today, but we
need to be reminded again tomorrow. And if a man does have some understanding
of spiritual truth, he's got some divine knowledge because
he's been taught of God, and he doesn't take that knowledge
and use it for the good of others, and use it for the good and glory
of God, he doesn't know anything yet. All he's revealing is he's
got a lot to learn. If we really know anything, have
true knowledge, we will use that knowledge to edify our brethren
and comfort our brethren. Look over back a few pages of
Romans 15. This is the example our Lord
set for us. Romans 15 verse 1. We then that
are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not
to please ourselves. If we're strong in knowledge,
we ought to bear with the infirmities. We ought to bear with those who
have less knowledge, because we need to remember there was
a day we had less knowledge. Somebody was patient with us
then, too. So we ought to bear with the infirmities of the weak.
Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good, to his
edification. For even Christ pleased not himself. But as it is written, the reproaches
of them that reproach thee fell on me." This is the example our
Lord set for us. How much more knowledge did he
have? How much more wisdom? How much more power? How much
more of everything? Yet he humbled himself and allowed
the reproaches of our sin to fall on him. He didn't please
himself. He did what he did for our edification,
for our good. And this is the example we're
to follow. And we can gain a lot of knowledge. But there's a big
difference between knowledge and wisdom. That's a fact. You can gain knowledge by memorizing
facts in a book. You gain wisdom from experience. Wisdom is knowledge guided by
love. And that's what we need, knowledge
guided by love. Now, verse 3, back in 1 Corinthians
8. But if any man loved God, the same is known of him. Now
if a man truly loves God, he'll show his love for God by loving
his brethren. Look over at 1 John chapter 4. See, you can't know God and not
love. It's an impossibility. 1 John
4 verse 20. We'll look at verse 19. If you love God, don't get too
puffed up about that either because we love Him because He first
loved us. Now if any man say I love God
and hates his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth
God love his brother also." And a man who loves his brother and
is careful not to offend him, is careful not to make them stumble,
but rather builds them up, that man is taught of God. The only
way a man can do that is if he's taught of God. The man who uses
his knowledge to help others is a man who knows God. He's
been taught by God. Now, verse 6, I'm sorry, verse 4. As concerning,
therefore, the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice
unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and
that there is none other god but one. For though there be
that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there
be gods many and lords many, But to us there is but one God,
the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him." Now there are
many idols in the world, and every one of them is a figment
of a man's imagination. Those idols are no more real
than the Wicked Witch of the West. They're just a fictional
character in a child's storybook. That's all they are. And these
idols don't have any power because they don't exist. They have no
power. They don't have any power to
affect the meat that's offered to them. None whatsoever. A meat
that's offered as a burnt offering to an idol is no different than
the meat that's grilled on your grill that you bought at Lowe's
and brought home and sat in your backyard. No different whatsoever. Now there are many idols. There's
a Sun God. There's a Moon God. There's a
Harvest God. There's a God of the rain. There's
a God of the summer, winter, and spring. There's a God of
the daytime, a God of the nighttime. There's a God of heaven, a God
of the underworld. A God of love, a God of hate.
So many idols you couldn't name them all. You spend how long
in school studying about Roman and Greek mythology and all those
idols that they have? But there's one true and living
God. There's just one. And He is all
those different idols. Our God is all those things.
He's the God of the sun and the moon. He hung those things in
space. They stay there at His command. God's the God of the
harvest. He sends the rain and the sunshine
and causes those plants to grow. He's the God of love. He's the
God that sends the different seasons. But more than those
idols, the one true and living God is the God of mercy. He's
the God of salvation. He's the God of life. Physical
life and spiritual life. Julie Thornberry right now is
life in her womb. Who put that there? God did. He's the God of life. And every
believer has spiritual life in you, in your heart. Who put that
there? God did. He's the God of life. He gives life. And He sustains
life, both physical and spiritual. He sustains it. In Him, we live
and move and have our being. He's the God of life. And there's
just one Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know this. Now, there
is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The
Lord Jesus Christ is everything. He's everything in salvation.
He's everything in this life. He's everything in the life to
come. He's everything in the covenant of grace. The Lord Jesus
Christ is everything. And you take all those idols
of men and you add them together and they come up to less than
nothing. But Christ is all. And every believer knows that.
If you know God, you know that. But even though we know that,
if we were raised in idolatry, Old habits are hard to break.
I mean, they're hard to break. It's hard to change that knee-jerk
reaction that you've been taught from the time you were a little
child. It's just tough to do. That's what Brother Henry's told
us so many times. Great flows come off, but they
come off slowly. And they come off slowly because
they're bound so tight. They're bound so tight to this
flesh. Now look at verse 7. That's what
he's saying. Paul says, Howbeit, there is
not in every man that knowledge. For some, with conscience of
the idol unto this hour, eat it as a thing offered unto an
idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled." You know,
someone grew up being taught to worship an idol, being taught
that that idol is really something else. And the Lord, in His mercy,
says, calls them out. And now they know that that idol
is just a hunk of wood. And they never think of bowing
down to it. Never in their wildest imagination
would they ever pray to that hunk of wood ever again. but
their conscience is still weak. And eating meat that has been
offered to that idol, all they can think about is that cooked,
they don't see cooked meat. They see meat that was offered
to that idol. And if they see someone else
eating it, their weak conscience is offended. Now if they ate
that meat, they would not be defiled. Not at all. But they
feel defiled because of their weak conscience. They are not
defiled, but their peace is ruined. And that's very important. Don't
ever underestimate the importance of your brother's peace, even
if he is weaker in knowledge. Our children, just our little
children, they're scared of the monster that's under the bed.
How many times are they scared of the monster under the bed?
And we calm their fears, even though we know there's not a
monster under their bed. We calm their fears by looking
and telling It's all empty. It's okay. Off under there are
some dust bunnies or shoes or something. You know, there's
those shoes we lost. But there's not a monster under there. Well,
why don't we do that for our spiritual brethren? Be patient
with them. Just be patient. Because it's
not going to last forever. I don't look under the Savannah's
bathroom monsters anymore. Well, these younger brethren
who are weaker in knowledge, they're going to grow. This is
not going to last forever. The Lord will teach them. So
just be patient with them. Now verse 8, Paul says, but meat,
commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat are we the
better, and neither if we eat not are we the worse. And here's
what the stronger, more knowledgeable believer knows. The kind of meat
that we eat, or if we would drink an alcoholic beverage, that will
not affect our relationship with God. Not whatsoever. What we
eat, or what we drink, will never affect our acceptance with the
Father. Because we're not accepted by what we do or what we don't
do. We're accepted in the beloved. We're accepted in Christ. So
what we eat or what we drink is not going to affect our relationship
with Christ. If we do eat or we do drink,
it's not going to make that relationship better or worse. And if we choose
not to eat or not to drink, our relationship with Christ won't
be affected. It won't be better. It won't be worse at all. Look
over Romans 14. Here's why. Here's why our relationship
with God won't be affected, whether we eat or drink. Romans 14, verse
17. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, but righteousness in peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. The kingdom of God is not what
we eat. It's in the righteousness of Christ that he gives us. It's
in Christ our peace. It's in Christ where we find
our joy. That's the kingdom of God. Now, it's true that what
we eat or what we drink will not affect our relationship with
God. That's true. But be mighty careful what you
do eat and what you do drink in the places that you do go
in public, because it won't affect your relationship with the Father,
but it could affect your relationship with your brethren. It could.
Look at verse 9. Paul says, but you take heed.
lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block
to them that are weak." Now your liberty to eat or drink whatever
you want, unless it would offend your weaker brother, then you're
not free to do it. Not at all. Drinking a glass
of wine, that's not going to break the law of God. But if
it would offend your weaker brother, it does break the royal law of
love. And that's very serious. Look
over Galatians chapter 5. Galatians 5 verse 13. For brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law
is fulfilled in one word, even in this. Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself." Don't use your liberty just to please your
flesh, but to please your brother, your weaker brother. And you
who are stronger in knowledge and older in the flesh, you don't
look down on our little ones who haven't grown yet, who haven't
gained strength and knowledge yet. Well, then why do we do
that with our weaker brethren who are less grown in spiritual
growth? You know, a few months ago, we
were dealing with this very subject in another epistle. And the example
I used was Jonah. At that time, he was just learning
to walk. Just barely toddling along. And I pointed out, you
know, we see that kid just toddling around. We don't run and put
something down in front of him to make it harder for him to
walk. And we don't say, well, you know, he'll learn to steer
if he stumbles over that thing and busts his face on the ground
a few times. No, we don't do that. We clear paths. You know,
we encourage him to let go and, you know, take a few steps. Well,
that don't last forever, does it? Now he gets around real good. You know, we had our Easter egg
hunt. He was off running after those other kids. Not only does
he walk good, he runs good. And it takes less supervision.
Now, Mama and Daddy still keep a close eye on him, but you'll
have to hold his hand everywhere he goes now, because he's gained
some strength. And the same thing will happen
spiritually. We've got to hold some hands
for a while. We've got to hold some hands
as someone grows in strength and knowledge. But be patient. Because I'm telling you, spiritual
growth takes longer. Jonah's going to be 16 and driving
a whole lot faster than we're going to have that much spiritual
growth. It takes time. So be patient with one another.
Just be patient. Now look at verse 10. Paul says,
For if any man see thee, which hath knowledge, sit at me in
the idol's temple, So not the conscience of him which is weak
be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols? And
through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom
Christ died?" Now many times they had these feasts right in
the idol's temple. And they offered the meat to
the idol and they sat right there and ate it right in the idol's
temple. And people would be invited to come to this feast. You know,
people would invite their friends and neighbors. And you've got
a neighbor. You're a mature believer and
you've got a neighbor who invites you to come down to that temple
and eat. Well, you know there's nothing wrong with eating that
meat that's been offered to the idol. As long as you don't participate
in the worship of it or nothing, you know that's not going to
defile you. So you think, here's a free meal. I think I'll go
eat. And you do. And there you sit in that idol's
temple eating. And a younger, less knowledgeable
brother sees you sitting there eating. Now he could think, hmm,
he's offended by that. He's offended because he still
thinks it's wrong to eat that meat. Or maybe he'll get a little
bold and he'll follow your example and he'll go get him a free meal
too. He thinks, well, it must be okay. I'm following the example
of this older brother. But later that night he gets
home and he gets thinking about it and his conscience bothers
him. He doesn't have the knowledge you have yet. and his peace has
been destroyed. Not because he did anything wrong,
but because he violated his own conscience. Or worse yet, maybe
he'll say, you know, that free meal is pretty good. Everything
I think is wrong must be okay. And he goes out and just does
everything he used to think was wrong, many of which are wrong.
And he defiles his peace. He destroys his peace. Either
way, however it shakes out, he did it following your example.
and his peace ended up being destroyed. And you think, well,
I didn't do anything wrong. There's nothing wrong with eating
that meat. That's true. But if you've got so much knowledge,
you ought to know better. You ought to know better. You
ought to be aware. If you have true knowledge, you're
aware of how your actions affect your brethren. And like I said,
meat's not our issue today. But maybe sitting at the bar
having a drink is. And there's nothing wrong with doing that,
nothing wrong at all, in moderation. But be careful, because someone
could be offended. Your weaker brother could be
offended, and they could be watching, so be awful careful. And you
think, this is really not that big a deal, isn't it? Look at verse 12. But when ye
sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience,
ye sin against Christ. Oh, oh, it is a big deal, isn't
it? Now, you didn't sin against the
law of God when you ate that meat or you took that drink,
but you sinned against your brother's conscience. I know his conscience
is weak. I know he doesn't know as much
as he will know yet, but you still wounded him. And Christ
said that's a sin against him. Whatsoever you do to the least
of these my brethren, you've done unto me. That's what he
said. And we need to remember every child of God is precious
to Him. Every one of them. Otherwise
He wouldn't have died for them. He never willingly would have
suffered so much for someone unless they were precious to
Him. And God's love is perfect. He has no favorite children.
Those who are weak in knowledge are equally precious to Him as
those who are strong in knowledge. And they should be to us too.
If Christ died for them, they're precious and they're important.
And that ought to mean more to the more knowledgeable believer.
The more you've grown in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the more you've learned how much you love Him. The more
knowledge, true knowledge that you have, the more you realize
how much I owe. The more knowledge that you have,
the more you understand Words cannot express everything that
Christ is to me. Maybe you think you could express
it when you were just first born, but the more you grow in grace,
the more you realize I can't express it. The more knowledge
you have, the more you know you cannot express what Christ has
done for me, how He's forgiven my sin. And the last thing you
want to do is sin against Him who loved us, and gave himself
for us, who shed his precious blood to wash us from our sins. The more knowledge you have of
that, the less you want to sin against him. So, verse 13, here's
our attitude. Wherefore, if meat make my brother
to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest
I make my brother to offend. Even though there's nothing wrong
with eating pork or eating meat that's been offered to idols,
I'll never eat it. if it'll offend my weaker brother.
Even though it's not wrong to do it, I won't do it if it's
going to offend my weaker brother. Here's what true knowledge says.
I'll give up my rights so that I don't sin against my brother,
my weaker brother. I'd rather be a vegetarian than
sin against my brother. And I like to eat. I mean, I like to eat. And you
know, I quoted my friend Jeff Vander, who says, if you're going
to have a good meal, meat must be involved. And I wholeheartedly
agree. I mean wholeheartedly. But I'd
rather go without than offend a brother. I sure would. That's
true knowledge. And that's the knowledge we need
to pray that the Lord will give us. Godly knowledge guided by
godly love. All right. Hope that'll be a
blessing to you.